Static packings of perfectly rigid particles with Coulomb friction are investigated theoretically and numerically. The problem of finding the contact forces in such packings is formulated mathematically. Letting the values of the contact forces define a vector in a high-dimensional space enables us to consider the set of all possible contact forces as a region embedded in this same space. It is found that the boundary of the set is connected with the presence of sliding contacts, suggesting that a stable packing should not have more than $2M-3N$ sliding contacts in two dimensions, where $M$ is the number of contacts and $N$ is the number of particles. These results are used to analyze packings generated in different ways by either molecular dynamics or contact dynamics simulations. The dimension of the set of possible forces and the number of sliding contacts agree with the theoretical expectations. The indeterminacy of each component of the contact forces is found, as well as an estimate for the diameter of the set of possible contact forces. We also show that contacts with high indeterminacy are located on force chains. The question of whether the simulation methods can represent a packing’s memory of its formation is addressed.

• Received 8 April 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.061303